By: Lee Snider
Jan 11, 2023
The picture on the left is me around 2013 having crushed some heavy tires. I am about 185lbs here and have had no signs of mechanical breakdown of any sorts and am living pain-free. The guy on the right is very unhappy with pain and discomfort. This is mid 2019 and I'm about 150lbs at this point. The main thing visible here is how I'm appearing to be facing my right, even though I'm standing straight.
I was a workout junkie. Not even a very responsible one at that. I avoided certain elements of movement - key ones - and I neglected the whole idea of maintenance, on the grounds of being in my 20s and secretly having an "I don't need that" mentality. More accurately, my clients had to do it, but not me. This was me and my old exercise ways. I was a workout junkie. An extreme enthusiast, a fanatic, and I got to a point where my spine and hips had so much asymmetry and imbalance that I had to make a decision. Live with pain and discomfort - at this point foot, knee and shoulder pain, ruled my days – or stop exercising and figure out your shit!
My body was wrecked. As someone who devoted their workouts to the big, bilateral lifts, a.k.a. squats and deadlifts, I was walking (orienting my body through space, wildly inefficiently to be more accurate) proof that human bodies aren’t designed to train this way. Maybe in some capacity, as many people do train this way effectively, but done exclusively I am the example that you will end up restricted, limited, twisted, asymmetrical, compressed AF, and inevitably in pain if you don’t resort to a sedentary, limited lifestyle first, as a result of your ways.
We as human beings, walk and run on 1 foot at a time, and I couldn’t even balance on 1 foot let alone run. So this was when I decided to make a change. It started with 18 months of no work outs and a loss of approximately 34 pounds of muscle (yes I know the exact number). Definitely the wrong move, but mentally it felt right and life was happening. A few years later, after countless therapists and practitioners and trying several different modalities of movement to find answers, I was finally showed the truth in the form of an x-ray.
The picture on the left shows normal c-spine curvature vs my c-spine on the right. This loss of curvature is a good indication of loss of curvature in the rest of my spine, again very common.
Through my mission of achieving a 450 pound squat and a 500 pound deadlift (seriously, not bragging) I had lost the natural curves in my spine and twisted my hips and rib cage into a dysfunctional mess. Although I make this sound extreme, most people have lost a lot of their natural, ideal spinal curves, by a pretty young age these days. At least by my observation. We can mostly thank sitting and footwear for this. Fast forward a few more years, and I’ve been deep down the hole of human biomechanics and sought out and found the Practitioners that have best aligned with my needs. I have changed my workouts dramatically and found a more human way to train, that is continuing to keep my spine healthy and strong and still improving posturally.
Mid 2019 vs Mid 2022
Having to give up movement as a result of my unhealthy approach to it was super tough, but turned out to be a life-changing experience and has taught me way more about the human body than any class I took in school. My goals remain the same as they always did – super human movement – with a little extra emphasis on “human" and a great emphasis on helping others learn and benefit from my 7+ year journey. Giving up exercise and all that comes from it and having to learn and understand a better way to do it, is what has inspired my Limitless Movement program and is what drives me in my present day movement addiction! There's still bad days, but they are becoming few and far between but having a body that's almost up for anything like it used to be is an unbelievable feeling and a heavy load off my mind...and spine.
A picture from late 2022 on the right. Easiest changes to see are the straighter pointing knees and how I am much less visibly twisting, if at all. What isn't visible is the improved spine curvature and decompression as a result. It feels great and I can't wait to get some of those lbs back, but, there's still more postural work to do!
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